Seeing Around the Corner at the Debate

I watched the second presidential debate last night, and I came away even more convinced that I am not going to vote for either one of the two candidates. I'll give the edge to John McCain, because I think he answered the questions directly, even if he did insert partisan political attacks into some of his answers. I don't think most of his answers to today's problems will pan out the way he and his advisors believe they will, but he gets points for answering the actual questions that were asked. I thought the most important question was the New Hampshire zen question, "What don't you know, and what will you do to learn what you don't know?" John McCain may have answered correctly that he doesn't know what the future will bring, but Obama probably answered the question, indirectly, in answer to a different question at the end of the debate. Obama's statement should be what every voter needs to repeat to themselves up to, and including, the moment that they push the button, pull the lever, or mark the ballot in the voting booth.

Obama said, "We've got to do a better job of seeing around the corner." Wow. "We've got to do a better job of seeing around the corner." Think about that the next time Sarah Palin tries to throw out the GOP party line about Iraq, Afghanistan, Fannie, Freddie, Iran, North Korea, and the economic meltdown. Think about that when party hacks from both sides bombard you with their partisan political crap to convince you that the other guys are the reason that we're going to hell in a handbasket. "We've got to do a better job of seeing around the corner."

The folks that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney brought to the White House with them almost eight years ago did a lousy job of seeing around the corner. They did one of the worst jobs of seeing around the corner in the history of seeing around the corner. The folks that George and Dick brought to Washington were sold to us as experts, especially in foreign policy. How's that worked out?

Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Dick Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice spent a good chunk of the 1990's formulating and writing about their plan for invading Iraq and remaking the Middle East. The invasion plan that they created and wrote extensively about in the 1990's was the plan that was foisted upon the Pentagon by Donald Rumsfeld. The invasion plan that they created and wrote extensively about was picked apart by a bunch of four-star generals who had spent a lifetime planning invasions. Not one of the generals saw rose petals being thrown at the troops' feet on the way to Baghdad when they looked around the corner. Not one of the generals saw 150,000 troops keeping Iraq secure in the aftermath of the invasion when they looked around the corner. Not one of the generals bought that crap about WMD and their imminent use when they looked around the corner. If they did, then columns would have been dispatched to secure the likely locations of the WMD and their controllers. Wasn't done. 'Nuff said.

Nope. The folks who looked around the corner and saw the invasion plan working were folks who spent a lifetime in academia, or government service, none of which was spent in a uniform. Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, and Condoleeza Rice. They, having spent no time actually shooting at and being shot at by the enemies of this country, told the four star generals who have been there and done that, that the generals didn't know what they were talking about. They told the rest of America the same thing. And guess what? America bought it. And kept buying it. Because America sent this same bunch of clowns back to the White House for a second term, even though they had run smack into the wall with their version of looking around the corner. Rumsfeld should have known better. He'd been there. He'd done that. He should have known that Dicky, Condi, Richy, Dougey, and Pauly were living in their own little academic exercise of a dream world that just didn't exist around the corner of Reality Street. Nice sentiment, remaking the Middle East. The devil is in the details.

That same ability to see around the economic corner has served us oh so well, hasn't it? For six years, the President and his gang have been giving themselves shoulder bursitis congratulating themselves on the robust American economy that the President had magnanimously bestowed upon us. They never missed an opportunity to take credit for all the good in the economy. Any bad could be blamed on the Democrats and Bill Clinton. Around the corner was prosperity unprecedented with nary a bump in the road. Home ownership was at record levels, as President Bush reminded us, and it was all because of his occupancy of the White House. So, how come he's running for cover now? Didn't he see it coming? A lot of other people saw disaster around the corner. People who know from economics, and markets, and bubbles, and irresponsible financial stewardship.

The people who looked around the corner and saw sinkholes rather than the honey and wine in the vision of the White House spotters were ridiculed as being out of touch with the reality of the Great American Economic Engine. Now, both sides are trying to tell us that they saw our current economic pain coming. Yeah, right.

We'll find out on November 4th whether Americans have awakened to the limited around-the-corner-vision of our leaders. If either one of these two gentlemen are chosen, then America will have chosen the same ole, same ole with just a change of name. Obama may have stated that we need to do a better job of seeing around the corner, but that doesn't mean that he and his team will. As for John McCain....well, his campaign team and advisory team are loaded with the same names that helped George W. Bush savage John McCain on his way to the White House in 2000. And we all know how well they can see around the corner. Are you better off today than you were eight years ago?